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Monday, April 30, 2018

Having recently written about multimodal transportation in
Washington, DC (here) and dockless bikes and scooters (here), I have to provide
an update about where the Venn diagram overlaps!

On a recent walk through Georgetown, I noticed a large
number of dockless bikes, scooters, and electric bikes, both in motion and
parked (see photos below) in this popular shopping and tourist destination.The District government has just extended
its trial “Dockless Demonstration Program” which permits 7 companies to provide
limited service.The trial program
was extended after the District and the providers were unable to reach an
agreement about how a permanent program might be regulated (Washington Post story here, Greater
Greater Washington here).

I was saddened to learn of the passing of David Billington,
engineering professor emeritus at Princeton (story here).David was an outstanding scholar and
teacher and a real gentleman.He
was best known for his efforts to encourage the infusion of aesthetic
sensibility into structural engineering design, which derived from his work on
Swiss designers.He hated what he
called “GI bridges” and believed that a piece of long-lived infrastructure such
as a bridge should reflect and enrich its natural environment and cultural
context.If the subject sounds
dry, note that David was one of the most popular lecturers at Princeton and
presented his views with humor and grace.If you never thought you would enjoy a lecture on bridge design, please
take a look at this lecture at MIT (here).

How much influence did David have?Hard to say.There is still a lot of ugly design out there.Thanks to Jack Lettiere, then president of AASHTO (American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials), he gave a lecture
at that organization’s 2005 convention, which hopefully started some
ripples.And certainly there are
some iconic new bridges such as the Swiss-designed Zakim Bridge in Boston,
which David references in the MIT lecture.I believe his thinking is still very valuable and I think it
will still have an impact well into the future.I know it has influenced me (see poster on my office wall).

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

On a recent visit to San Diego I was pleased to see the
Trolley doing well – appearing to be well maintained, running smoothly, and
clearly popular.It’s still only a
small piece of the transportation picture in a very auto-dominated metro area,
but it provides a key mobility alternative, especially for access to a vibrant,
revitalized downtown.A ride to
the ballpark on the Green Line was smooth, well-utilized (but not crowded), and
delivered us to the heart of the entertainment district, a block from the
stadium.(Quite a contrast to the
ride to Fenway Park on that other Green Line, rocking and rolling along the old
tracks in a jam-packed antique car!)

Happily, construction is underway on an 11-mile extension of
the Trolley north to the University City area (San Diego’s “second downtown”)
near the University of California at San Diego (project information here).Hopefully a connection to the airport
will follow soon.

Also encouraging is a recent report (here) that notes the
largely unexploited potential for transit-oriented development at current
station sites.I hope that bears
fruit!

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Dockless bikes and scooters are now quite the rage – and
stirring up some rage! – in various cities.They can be very convenient for the user, but maybe not so
convenient for someone whose driveway or doorstep is blocked by a dropped
bike.Cities where this phenomenon
has exploded are awash with angry debates about how to manage it (see
background piece in the New York Timeshere), although apparently Lime Bikes were not
actually tossed into the Mississippi River in St. Louis (here).(FYI, Lime Bike is the best known and
probably biggest provider at this time.)

On a recent visit to San Diego I was able to get an
impression of how the issue is developing in that city (see below: Lime Bike at
the beach, “no parking” at the ballpark).

How will this kerfuffle play out?Hard to say, but it’s exciting to see that the appetite for
innovative mobility is strong!

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

I had a chance recently to visit Washington DC’s new “The
Wharf” mixed use urban development on the city’s southwest waterfront – and was
duly impressed!The designers have
done a fine job of putting together a package of residences, shops, bars, restaurants,
hotels, and entertainment venues that work well together and fit the unusual
(for DC) waterfront location.Almost the entire development is new, but they have kept the funky old
fish market.The target
demographic for the development is not too hard to figure out. “Portugal. The Man” was playing when I
visited (note my careful use of punctuation).

Fuller reviews of the development can be found at Greater
Greater Washington (here) and CityLab (here).The Wharf development’s own website is here.

Transportation access and circulation is appropriately
multimodal and hip and urban.Note
below the bikeway, water taxi, and woonerf!(If you don’t know the latter term, Google it and impress
your friends.)